


Hedge Maze Confessions

by Ninj



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:36:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27177316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninj/pseuds/Ninj
Summary: Sarah and Hoggle are just trying to find a fountain, instead Toby finds them.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	Hedge Maze Confessions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anaraine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anaraine/gifts).



Sarah was lost again. It happened often when she and Hoggle were exploring the Labyrinth together. Jareth’s revenge, petty as it was. 

“Why can’t you make nice with him and go for tea or something?” Hoggle huffs as they come to another dead end in a hedge maze. “Yesterday, this path led to the fountain I wanted to show you.”

“Oh you know,” Sarah shrugs as they turn and head back to the last branch. “He stole my brother. He locked me out of the other fae realms.” 

“You sure hold a grudge,” Hoggle mutters. Only Hoggle knows that isn’t true, she’s forgiven him for everything he’s done. And then have been rough patches to their friendship these last ten years. “Your brother goes for tea.”

“Toby goes for cookies,” Sarah corrects. They’ve reached another dead end in the hedge maze. She looks up at the sky, unsure of what she’s directing this next comment at, the Labyrinth or its King. “Really?”

“And the singing goblins,” a young voice corrects from behind them. Sarah whips around in time to catch Toby’s body as he flings himself at her. “I was hoping to see you today.”

“In the castle?” Sarah can’t keep the incredulity out of her question. She’s mostly avoided the castle. “Toby, we’ve been going in circles for an hour.”

“Have you?” Toby looks up at her, and seeming to remember his eleven year old dignity lets go and steps back. “Or does it just feel like an hour because, you know.”

“I know,” Sarah pulls him back in for another quick hug before letting him go. “Did you want to see me about something particular?”

“I miss you,” Toby answers. It’s probably true, she lives in another state above-ground. “Jareth said I had to come find you because you’d be mean to him if he invited you to the castle.”

“She’s always mean to him,” Hoggle observes. 

“Imagine that,” Sarah looks to see if the path to the fountain is open. No such luck. “So you got us lost in a hedge maze for an hour because?”

“The Labyrinth got you lost in a hedge maze,” Toby tells her. “You’re hard to find. The Labyrinth likes you, and you don’t like to be found. But it was me, so I knew where to look. I found you.” 

“Did Jareth send you into the Labyrinth alone?” Sarah and Toby go back and forth between the Labyrinth and the real world. Some of its power in them since that fateful night. Sarah’s tried staying away, it never ends well, and she misses it. She never figured out how Toby started bringing himself back here. He always goes straight to Jareth. She looks around for the last person she wants to see. 

“No,” Toby assures. “He made sure I came straight to you. He wouldn’t want you to think he was endangering me. Last time you thought I was in danger, you messed up his escher room.” 

“I did not think you were in danger, you were explicitly in danger,” Sarah corrects as she spies a flash of gold on the back of his neck, wondering when her brother started wearing jewelry. Since Toby wants to spend time with her she asks. “Do you want to come see this fountain with Hoggle and I before I go back?”

A fountain, clearly does not compare well to whatever Toby and Jareth get up to the castle and Toby’s look of disdain conveys that alarmingly well.

“Come on boy, this is the Labyrinth,” Hoggle tries to make it sound more interesting. “You think I’m just taking your sister to see a normal fountain?”

“Yes,” Toby is unmoved by Hoggle. Despite multiple efforts he’s never gotten Hoggle to sing for him, and thus Sarah knows, he remains unimpressed. He’s convinced every Labyrinth creature should sing.

“Is there something else you wanted to see?,” Sarah is certain her brother doesn’t need more exposure to the Labyrinth. Her father and Karen have never noticed his trips to the Labyrinth and Sarah shudders to think of why. 

“I think we should go back to the castle,” Toby tells her. He looks almost uneasy surrounded by the hedges. Now that Sarah’s watching he keeps reaching up to fiddle with something and aborting the movement halfway. Toby spends most of his time in the castle and Sarah has avoided the castle since a fateful tea when he was six, she’s sadly, been less able to avoid Jareth. 

“Goblin village,” Hoggle and Sarah suggest in unison. Sarah knows better than to fight with Toby. He comes by his stubbornness naturally. The best thing to do is compromise. Hoggle knows Sarah won’t willingly go to the castle.

Toby looks tremendously put upon by Sarah’s unwillingness to do anything he considers interesting. “You know Jareth won’t take me to see some parts of the Labyrinth without you? Won’t you tell him it’s ok?” 

“If there are parts of the Labyrinth Jareth doesn’t want you to see, I don’t know why I’d agree.” Sarah ignores the without you part in the sentence. “Are the singing goblins boring you? You can go home, you know.”

Toby awkwardly shuffles from foot to foot and refuses to make eye contact. He openly starts fiddling with the necklace he’s been wearing. 

“Toby?” Sarah questions. Sheer panic flows through her, that is not the reluctant shuffle, that is the shuffle of secrets. “Toby, what did you do?”

Now her brother stops shuffling and fiddling to look up at her in frustration. “I didn’t do anything. I’m not stupid! Maybe I just want to spend time with my sister.”

Hoggle is silently but studiously studying the walls of the hedge maze hoping for an escape route. The hedge maze shifts and a new corridor opens up. Sarah pins him with a glare as he starts edging through the opening.

“Hoggle!” 

“This seems like a family conversation,” Hoggle explains. And he’s no dummy, the way his name is being thrown about Jareth will be here soon. Unlike Toby, Hoggle doesn’t feel joy watching Sarah and Jareth’s verbal sparring. “And we’re not getting to the fountain today. See you soon.”

And Hoggle makes his escape, the maze closing behind him. He comes up short when he spies the Goblin King, lounging on a bench clearly eavesdropping on the conversation. He’s dismissed with a lazy wave of the King’s hand and doesn’t stop. He’s sure he’ll hear all about it from Sarah later.

“I like it here,” Toby reminds her. “Don’t you feel empty without the magic when you’re not here?”

“No,” Sarah denies. She wonders if it’s because she’s been smart enough not to eat anything from the fae realms. Something Toby has been indulging in for years. “We don’t belong here.”

“We don’t belong at home either,” Toby sulks. 

“Toby,” Sarah starts unsure how to continue. She takes a deep breath and goes on. “I love the Labyrinth. I love Hoggle, and my friends here. I won’t stop coming, I’m not telling you to stop coming.”

“You won’t come with me,” Toby is trying to explain. “Jareth is important to me. He’s been around my entire life. And you’re important to me. You are the only one I can talk to about this place, and when we’re here you always avoid me.” 

“I’m not trying to avoid you,” Sarah defends weakly. “You know I’m just trying to avoid provoking Jareth.”

Toby snorts. “If that’s what you were doing you’d have been in the castle years ago. Acting like a normal mortal. Every time he corners you he asks you to come to the castle.” 

“What do you want me to do Toby?” Sarah asks. 

“Monthly tea,” Toby replies with ease. He’s fiddling with the necklace again, it looks familiar, but he’s just too far away for Sarah to catch the detail. “There’s so much to learn about the Labyrinth. If you come for tea he’ll teach you. And you’ll stop getting lost.”

“I don’t think I’m the reason I keep getting lost,” Sarah corrects. Toby’s not telling her the whole story. There’s something on the edges here. “I’m not interested in trying to have a civil monthly conversation with someone who blames me for his escher room still needing repairs when it was a consequence of our joint choices.”

“I’m sure when you’ve only stopped by the castle every five years it sounds like a lot,” Toby agrees. He waves a had and a bench appears. He gestures to Sarah nobly that she might sit. “I just think you’re going to want to.”

Toby should not be able to make a bench. Sarah has been in fae realms and in the Labyrinth for years. She can get herself back and forth, but she does not have power. Defeat and dread sit so heavy in her stomach Sarah sinks onto the bench without argument. 

“Just tell me what you’re avoiding,” Sarah orders. Sometimes it’s best to stop letting Toby dance around the issue. It’s important that he feels comfortable telling her things. She can be calm.

“I’m going to be his Heir,” Toby looks her in the eyes fearlessly. And then rushes to explain. “It’s not for a long time. Don’t worry, I asked. I’m still going home”

“You are eleven,” Sarah shrieks. So much for staying calm. “You can’t decide to rule a fae kingdom at eleven!”

“Well I didn’t decide,” Toby starts pacing. It looks familiar. “Jareth decided, because he’s you know, the King. So I have a lot to learn. And you’re my sister, the sister of the Heir. Kinda makes you a princess or something you know?”

“Did you agree I’d be a princess?” Sarah’s voice is still alarmingly high. She is trying to take deep breaths. “Toby, forget monthly tea, I’m going to kill him.”

“Then I’d be King and I’d have to stay,” Toby replies instantly. “Poor planning. I think you’re going to want him to live a long and happy life. So, how about we plan for tea next month after you’ve calmed down and you can discuss the transition plan with him? And your title? Good plan. Bye Sarah!”

Toby hugs her and is gone.

Sarah is left sitting in a hedge maze that suddenly has four neat branching corridors and the sound of a fountain burbling happily at the end of the one she and Hoggle had been walking down earlier. Next to her, on the bench sit a necklace, with pendant she’s seen before and a peach. She sticks the necklace in her pocket and throws the peach in the direction of smug energy before wishing herself home, the long game between her and Jareth continues.

**Author's Note:**

> This kind of went in directions I wasn't expecting. Hopefully you enjoy the Sarah and Hoggle friendship, and the ongoing relationship the Williams siblings have with the Labyrinth.


End file.
